Prep on Dissertation: WYSIWYG

What you see is what you get!

This is another chapter of DIT transition towards Dissertation. I am speaking about the things I am going through as I am taking time to get ready for starting-up my manuscript. Well first thing first, I need a topic.

Field of Concentration

The first thing I learned under one of my professor is to seek motivation based on your field or area of concentration. This means directing your effort at what you really want to study. Spending time on something that you are not familiar with and even not interested is a waste of time. Luckily, what I am interested right now is one of the priority areas of research in the local and global arena. Currently, I am focusing on Artificial Intelligence in particular the use of soft computing method such as Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Fuzzy Logic Approach. 

Proper Toolbox

Dissertation is war and getting through it needs the right strategy and of course proper tools! Without them, its mayhem.

Writing the manuscript is a surefire job taking tolls on your time especially if its a requirement that you write it in different formats such as ACM, IEEE, ACL, etc. 

I am using Latex editor I downloaded from Google, no need to worry it is free. This simple tool help me workout my papers whether it is in ACM or in IEEE format. The best thing about this is the richness of library and tools it offers, also take note that most paper conferences and publications offer pre-formatted Latex templates. Also, I like the portable document format (pdf) output it produce, it is crisp and you can easily format the document the way you want it. However, you also need to have learned at least basic construction since it follows syntax similar to Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). I said similar since it has its own unique library.

The next tool you need is an open source journal or better yet if your school have its own journal subscription like Science Direct and others. Take note that its not free. In my case, thanks to Technological Institute of Technology (TIP) they are equipped with this helpful subscription. I am using Google right now to search for free floating journals but later I am going to get some more once I get to TIP and download resources for my related literature.